Jahangir Alam Akash, Editor-Euro Bangla www.eurobangla.org

Reality and speech?

Jahangir Alam Akash: Early in the morning of the 11 February this year, a married couple brutally murdered in their own bedrooms. The murder happened in front of their six years old son at their home in the capital Dhaka in Bangladesh. The couple both worked as Television journalists and program makers were popular. Man Sagar was killed with 28 stab wounds and his wife Runi died after being stabbed five times.

During the autopsy of Sagar saw that there was fixed a small knife in his right breast. Almost the entire blade of the knife had entered his body. Some of the knife thrusts were measured to be around two and a half inch wide. Runi were fatal knife was ticking in the abdomen. In addition, she also has two deep stab wounds under his eyebrows. The murder of the two TV journalists were investigated, but police have not yet arrested any of the murderers. Neither the motive for the killings to find.

Sagar worked as news editor of the private TV channel Masranga and Runi was a senior journalist with the private TV channel ATN Bangla. The couple were working in the energy sector.

Since 1984 it killed 43 journalists, including the famous writer Humayun Azad of Bangladesh. Journalists all over Bangladesh have protested against the killings and for the journalists live in insecurity. They believe that the killings of journalists are not investigated thoroughly enough, and this is not fair to the surviving family members.

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina reacted with anger on journalists’ protests and said that most journalists were killed before she became Prime Minister. She also believed that it is not possible for the government to provide security for citizens in their bedrooms.

In fact, there are also some journalists who agree with the Prime Minister in her speech. Last month was a Bangladeshi journalist on a visit to Oslo. He stated, “In my country there are one hundred percent freedom of the press,” but at the same time he said it was committed abuses against journalists in Bangladesh. After his speech, three photojournalists were stopped on the street and tortured by the police. At the same time terrorists attacked a news agency and two journalists and an employee was seriously injured. Another journalist Jamaluddin killed in Jessore. Lastly some journalists have been tortured at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

What this so-called “journalist” says is not consistent with what is happening in today’s Bangladesh. Therefore it is natural to ask the question, is this man representative of the journalists in Bangladesh? Or he can be an emissary for the authorities in Bangladesh? Picture-Prothom Alo taken from Face Book.